


What Lies Beyond, What Lies Within

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [42]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Mentions of Death, POV Hyuuga Hinata, Promised Neverland AU, hinata and Mei are both 11, relatively tame for the universe tbh, same age au, you don’t really need to know anything about the promised neverland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: Hinata can’t do much, but she can do this, and she can trust.
Relationships: Terumi Mei & Hyuuga Hinata
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Kudos: 6





	What Lies Beyond, What Lies Within

**Author's Note:**

> Day 42: Promised Neverland AU / Hinata + Mei

Hinata waits at the edge of a wall, hands clasped below her chin and the weight of insurmountable anxiety resting on her young shoulders. She is not strong enough to pull herself up with the ease that Mei does, so she’s been delegated to look-out.

At eleven years old, the day on which they are shipped off grows closer and closer. It had once been a happy idea, wrapped in blind hope and childish dreams. She’d looked forward to the day, wished for it to come sooner every year, every month. Now the very idea is a nightmare. 

There are no parents or happy family awaiting them when they leave. There is only death, for she is only cattle to a race of monsters that feed on their flesh and call their brains delicacies. It keeps her up at night, where she used to rest easily. Now she fears closing her eyes, fears Mother and fears waking one morning to her name being called. For the lie of adoption to follow. She can’t live like this. She doesn’t  _ want _ to. So when Mei had taken charge, plotting and planning for their escape, for their survival — whatever that entails — Hinata had followed. 

She’s still following.

Hinata doesn’t see herself as much. She’s quiet and has trouble speaking up, can’t seem to bring herself to be brave when it comes to anything social. But if she wants to live she needs to do whatever is necessary, she needs to be the best version of herself she can possibly be. Hinata is nervous, anxious, painfully shy and despondent on the best of days — but she refuses to let herself be a coward. While she is scared, she is also determined. It’s not just her life on the line.

Mei stands at the top of the wall, her auburn hair a fluttering curtain behind her, shifting like liquid in the breeze. She’s too young to hold the weight of all their lives on her shoulders, but she doesn’t complain once. Does it gladly, even. Mei wants to burst through the walls and grasp freedom with her own hands. She’s a wrecking ball in a small, pretty package.

She’s kind. Too kind. She believes in Hinata when Hinata doesn’t believe in herself. She believes in Hinata enough to have her as a lookout.  _ Trusts her _ to be up to the task. It makes something swell in Hinata’s chest, like a slow burning fire. She wants to live up to those expectations placed upon her. Maybe she’s nervous, maybe she’s not sure if she  _ can _ live up to them — but she’s going to try, and she’s going to put everything into it. 

Hinata glances back up to Mei. The other girl is standing frozen, peering out into the unknown. Hinata doesn’t dare raise her voice to ask what the redhead sees. She’s too terrified of being caught, despite the flickering bravery. Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe the whole world is a flat, broken desert or craggy earth that’s too unviable for survival. She holds her tongue not only because of the fear of getting caught, but also because of the fear of an answer. If it’s not the answer they want, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

Die, probably.

Literally.

Hinata swallows. She keeps her ears sharp and her eyes peeled. Hinata’s eyes are the best of the lot — she can see farther than any other, can pick out the little details that most miss. It’s the reason she’s the designated lookout. 

You use your strengths. 

Hinata is not strong in every subject, doesn’t see herself as very strong at all, but she can do this. Mother, on the other hand, is strong and capable, incredibly so. Taller, more skilled, easily able to wrangle over twenty children, half of them under the ages of six. She cuts a terrifying figure blocking their path to freedom and life. It doesn’t matter what Mother says, dying so young is to die before you have lived at all.

Mei thumps to the ground, rolling to lighten to fall. She pops up and grasps Hinata’s hand, moving before a word can be said. They run together, and Hinata presses her lips shut to stop the questions bubbling in her throat. She wants to know what Mei saw over the wall.

They run through the trees, dappled light warping around their moving bodies. Faster and faster even though it’s Mei who’s the athletic one, not Hinata, so she begins to feel her lacking stamina throughout her body — even then, she doesn’t stop. Because the fear keeps her legs moving, the fear of getting caught out here by Mother, so close to the wall.

“There is a gorge,” Mito whispers, her voice barely heard over the sounds of their feet and breathing. “Between the wall and the land.”

Hinata’s heart drops to her feet and takes all her warmth with it. She feels the numbness of denial set it, the sharp stab of despair follow shortly after.  _ What are they to do? _

She doesn’t want to die.

Mei looks back, green eyes sharp and not at all wrapped in terror or despair like Hinata, she glows like a beacon of hope. “And we will cross it, or die trying.”

_ Yes, _ Hinata thinks.  _ We will. _


End file.
